title: Transposable elements and microevolutionary changes in natural populations.
abstract: Transposable elements (TEs) usually represent the most abundant and dynamic fraction of genomes in almost all living organisms. The overall capacity of such 'junk DNA' to induce mutations and foster the reorganization of functional genomes suggests that TE may be of central evolutionary significance. However, to what extent TE dynamics drive and is driven by the evolutionary trajectory of host taxa remains poorly known. Further work addressing the fate of TE insertions in natural populations is necessary to shed light on their impact on microevolutionary processes. Here, we highlight methodological approaches (i.e. transposon displays and high-throughput sequencing), tracking TE insertions across large numbers of individuals and discuss their pitfalls and benefits for molecular ecology surveys.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of evolutionary botany, Institute of biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Georgi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bonchev
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parisod
mesh_terms: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods*; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009154:Mutation; D017384:Sequence Deletion
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements
keywords: adaptation; genome dynamics; high-throughput sequencing; retrotransposons; speciation; transposon displays